Strawberry plasticulture for northern homeowners

ltiltonMay 31, 2012

OK, I don't really want to poison the soil with methyl bromide, and I don't have one of those plastic-laying machines, but I would like to try growing berries as an annual on some kind of artificial substance. What would be the best fungicide to treat the soil before laying it down? The target is botrytis.

Um, question for you, how many are you planning to plant? Because, personally, unless your talking about more than a couple hundred plants, I would just consider planting in large tubs in sterile potting mix. Or even in bag culture. Then you wouldn't have to worry about soil-borne diseases.

Botrytis, though, isn't going to be stopped by any soil treatment, since its everywhere and spreads rapidly through the environment during periods of wet weather. The link below has some good articles about controlling botrytis.

About a hundred plants. More than I could conveniently do in containers. Isn't that one of the advantages of the plasticulture, to lay a barrier between the soil fungus and the leaves/flowers of the plants?